Title 7 — Elections

The county board of election commissioners shall canvass the returns and examine the ballots when demanded. It may hear testimony, if offered, of fraudulent practices and illegal votes, may cast out illegal votes and fraudulent returns, may find the true and legal vote cast for e…

A.C.A. § 7-7-310Current through all legislation of the 2025 Regular Session.Arkansas Code of 1987 Annotated Official EditionCopyright © 2026 by the State of Arkansas All rights reserved

A.C.A. § 7-7-311Current through all legislation of the 2025 Regular Session.Arkansas Code of 1987 Annotated Official EditionCopyright © 2026 by the State of Arkansas All rights reserved

A.C.A. § 7-7-312Current through all legislation of the 2025 Regular Session.Arkansas Code of 1987 Annotated Official EditionCopyright © 2026 by the State of Arkansas All rights reserved

If there is a primary election in which only one (1) candidate has filed for the position by a filing deadline and there are no other ballot issues to be submitted for consideration, the county board of election commissioners may declare and certify the candidate as elected in th…

(a) The county board of election commissioners shall certify the nomination of all county, township, and municipal offices to the county committee of the political party, state committee of the political party, and county clerk. It shall further certify the vote of all candidates…

(a) (1) All certified lists of nominees as candidates for presidential electors and members of the United States Congress and for state, judicial, and district officers, either by convention, primary election, or electors, shall be filed with the Secretary of State.(2) All certif…

A.C.A. § 7-7-403Current through all legislation of the 2025 Regular Session.Arkansas Code of 1987 Annotated Official EditionCopyright © 2026 by the State of Arkansas All rights reserved

All primaries, preferential and general, for the selection of nominees for federal offices, including those of the United States Senators and United States Representatives, shall be held on the same date and in the same manner as the preferential and general primaries for state, …

(a) Vacancies in the office of United States Senator shall be filled by appointment by the Governor. (b) (1) The appointee under subsection (a) of this section shall serve during the entire unexpired Senate term if the office would in regular course be filled at the next general …

When the Governor shall make a temporary appointment of a United States Senator by authority of this subchapter, he or she shall deliver to the senator a credential in the following form:Click here to view form.

When any vacancy shall happen in the office of a member of the United States House of Representatives from this state by death, resignation, removal, or otherwise, it shall be the duty of the Governor, by proclamation, to order the sheriffs of the several counties to order an ele…

Each political party in the state desiring to select delegates to attend a quadrennial national nominating convention of the party to select a nominee for the office of President of the United States shall hold a preferential primary election in the state, and the delegates to th…

Each political party holding a preferential primary election in the state shall adopt appropriate rules for the selection of delegates and alternate delegates to the quadrennial national nominating convention of the party and to otherwise carry out the intent and purposes of this…

(a) There shall be elected by general ticket in the manner and with the effect provided in this subchapter, on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November preceding the expiration of the term of office of each President of the United States, as many electors of President …

(1) Choosing and election of electors of President of the United States and Vice President of the United States shall be in the following manner:(1) (A) In each year in which a President of the United States and Vice President of the United States are chosen, each political party…

(a) The appearance on the general election ballot of the name of a party nominee for the office of President of the United States or Vice President of the United States in lieu of the names of the candidates for electors for the offices shall not limit or restrict the party nomin…

(a) The county clerks of the several counties shall make, within eight (8) days next after holding the election as provided in § 7-8-302, three (3) copies of the abstract of the votes cast for electors by each political party or group as indicated by the voter as provided in § 7-…

(1) Within five (5) days after the votes shall have been canvassed and the results declared or the result declared by lot as provided in § 7-8-304, the Governor shall:(1) Cause the result of the election to be published;(2) Proclaim the persons composing the list so elected to be…

(a) The electors, elected as provided in this subchapter, shall meet at the office of the Secretary of State, in a room to be designated by him or her in the State Capitol Building, at the time appointed by the laws of the United States at the hour of 10:00 a.m. of that day, and …

In case any person duly elected an elector of President of the United States and Vice President of the United States shall fail to attend at the United States Capitol on the day on which his or her vote is required to be given, it shall be the duty of the electors of President an…

(1) As used in this subchapter:(1) “Act” means an act having general application throughout the state, whether originating in the General Assembly or proposed by the people;(2) “Amendment” means an amendment to the Arkansas Constitution that is proposed by the people;(3) “Canvass…

(a) (1) The duties imposed by this act upon members of the State Board of Election Commissioners and county boards of election commissioners, election officials, and all other officers expressly named in this act are declared to be mandatory.(2) These duties shall be performed in…

(a) (1) (A) A person who is a registered voter of this state may sign his or her own name and print his or her own name, address, birth date, and the date of signing on an initiative or referendum petition in his or her own proper handwriting, and not otherwise, to order an initi…

(a) The petition for an ordinance, act, or amendment proposed by initiative shall be on substantially the following form:Click here to view form. (b) No additional sheets of voter signatures shall be attached to any petition unless the sheets contain the full language of the peti…

(a) The petition and order of referendum for an ordinance or act shall be on substantially the following form:Click here to view form. (b) The information provided by the person on the petition may be used as evidence of the validity or invalidity of the signature. However, if a …

(a) To every petition for the initiative shall be attached a full and correct copy of the title and the measure proposed. (b) To every petition for the referendum shall be attached a full and correct copy of the measure on which the referendum is ordered.

(a) Before any initiative petition or referendum petition ordering a vote upon any amendment or act shall be circulated for obtaining signatures of petitioners, the sponsors shall submit the original draft with the Attorney General. (b) The original draft shall include:(1) The fu…

(a) Each initiative or referendum petition ordering a vote upon a measure having general application throughout the state shall be prepared and circulated in fifteen (15) or more parts or counterparts, and each shall be an exact copy or counterpart of all other such parts upon wh…

(a) Each petition containing signatures shall be verified in substantially the following form by the canvasser's affidavit thereon as a part thereof:Click here to view form. (b) Forms herein given are not mandatory, and if substantially followed in any petition it shall be suffic…

(a) The popular name of each state measure shall be the popular name provided by the sponsor under § 7-9-107, and the number of the measure on the ballot shall be designated as provided in § 7-9-116. (b) In all legal notices and publications affecting a measure, the measure shall…

(a) The Secretary of State shall ascertain and declare the sufficiency or insufficiency of the signatures submitted on each statewide initiative petition and each statewide referendum petition within thirty (30) days after it is filed. (b) The Secretary of State may contract with…

(a) If the Secretary of State determines that the signatures submitted on a statewide initiative petition or statewide referendum petition are insufficient, the following persons may challenge that determination by petitioning the Supreme Court to determine if the signatures are …

(a) (1) The Secretary of State shall be charged with the duty of letting contracts for publishing notices as authorized in this section.(2) (A) For measures proposed by petition, the petition sponsor shall reimburse the cost of publication to the Secretary of State within thirty …

(a) The Attorney General shall prepare a concise abstract of the contents of each statewide initiative and referendum measure proposed under Arkansas Constitution, Amendment 7, and he or she shall transmit it to the Secretary of State not less than twenty (20) days before the ele…

(a) Not less than eighteen (18) days before the election, the Secretary of State shall furnish the State Board of Election Commissioners and county boards of election commissioners a certified copy of the ballot title and popular name for each proposed measure and each referred a…

(a) The Secretary of State shall fix and declare the number of the issue by which state measures shall be designated on the ballot. (b) Each state measure shall be identified with the issue number designated by the Secretary of State. (c) Measures proposed by initiative petition …

(a) It shall be the duty of the county board of election commissioners in each county to cause each title and popular name to be printed upon the official ballot to be used in the election at which the measure is to be voted upon, in the manner certified by the Secretary of State…

If any election board shall fail or refuse to submit any proposal after its sufficiency has been duly certified, the qualified electors of the county may vote for or against the measure by writing or stamping on their ballot the proposed ballot title, followed by the word “FOR” o…

(a) The vote on each measure shall be counted, tabulated, and returned by the proper precinct election officials to the county board of election commissioners in each county at the time and in the manner the vote for candidates for state and county officers is tabulated, canvasse…

(a) The Secretary of State shall cause every measure approved by the people to be printed with the general laws enacted by the next ensuing session of the General Assembly with the date of the Governor's proclamation declaring the same to have been approved by the people. (b) How…

(a) The right to contest the returns and certification of the votes cast upon any measure is expressly conferred upon any twenty-five (25) qualified electors of the state. (b) Any contest may be brought in the Pulaski County Circuit Court and shall be conducted under any rules an…

If two (2) or more conflicting measures shall be approved by a majority of the votes severally cast for and against the measures at the same election, the measure receiving the greatest number of affirmative votes shall become law.

All petitions, notices, certificates, or other documentary evidence of procedural steps taken in submitting any measure shall be filed and preserved. Petitions with signatures shall be retained for two (2) years and thereafter destroyed. The measure and the certificates relating …

(a) There is hereby established in the office of the Secretary of State a voter registration signature imaging system, and the Secretary of State is authorized to acquire and maintain the necessary equipment and facilities to accommodate the system. (b) The Office of State Techno…

(a) As used in this section, “property” means both real and personal property and includes without limitation both tangible and intangible property. (b) (1) No person who is a sponsor of an initiative petition, referendum petition, or constitutional amendment which proposes the s…

(a) Upon the initial filing of an initiative petition or referendum petition, the official charged with verifying the signatures shall:(1) Perform an initial count of the signatures; and(2) Determine whether the petition contains, on its face and before verification of the signat…

(a) Upon conviction, a person commits a Class A misdemeanor if the person knowingly:(1) Changes a signature other than his or her own signature on a petition;(2) Erases or otherwise removes a signature other than his or her signature on a petition;(3) Intentionally destroys or di…

(a) Within ten (10) business days of a sponsor submitting an original draft under § 7-9-107, the Attorney General shall determine if the proposed measure has a financial impact by virtue of:(1) Increasing or decreasing state revenues, costs, expenditures, or indebtedness; or(2) E…

Amendments to the Arkansas Constitution shall be proposed in either branch of the General Assembly in the form of a joint resolution, which shall be read in full on three (3) several days in each house unless the rules be suspended by two-thirds (⅔) of each house, when it may be …